Those readers who have seen my posts in the past know that I’m a Bible-believing Christian with an interest in politics.  I like to post about personalities and economic issues, but when push comes to shove, the things nearest to my heart are the so-called “social issues” like abortion (cue the five readers of this blog hitting “BACK” on their browser).

That is why this video from Ray Comfort, a New Zealander living in California, hit me hard.  I hope you will watch it because it will change the way you view the world – and the abortion issue.  If you don’t have time, here is the gist of it…

We in America kill babies – lots of them.  We do it because it’s convenient and, hey, they’re not really human anyway, right, especially if they’re only three months along? Well, Hitler killed Jews – lots of them.  He did it because he thought they were less than human – just like we think of unborn children. Do you think it was wrong for Hitler to kill Jews? And if so, how can you then sanction the destruction of 53 million American children over the past 35 years?

But Ray Comfort does the issue a lot more justice than I can.  Please, watch the video (warning: there is some graphic holocaust imagery).

RIGHT: Republicans will win back a majority in the State Senate…

WRONG/RIGHT: …with Ed Thompson and Leah Vukmir delivering majority-status…

RIGHT: Van Waangard shocks John Lehman…

WRONG: Pat Kreitlow soundly defeats Terry Moulton 53-47…

VERY WRONG: …Russ Decker survives the scare of his political lifetime, defeating Pam Galloway by less than 500 votes.

UBER WRONG: Republicans will be less successful in the State Assembly due to Brett Davis’ decision to run for Lieutenant Governor.  Ultimately, Davis’ decision will cause Assembly Republicans to fall one single seat short of a majority, 50-49.

WRONG: …Assembly Republicans will lose at least two more incumbents.

NOT EVEN CLOSE: Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan narrowly holds his top post despite an effort from disaffected Assembly Democrats to depose him.  (Just wow.)

WRONG (but almost right): Assembly Upset Special - Republican Vicki Milbrath defeats incumbent Andy Jorgensen.

RIGHT: Dawn Marie Sass’ nepotism scandal costs her the election. Republican (fill in the blank) takes her down easily.

RIGHT: Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen cruises to victory with nearly 60% of the vote.

RIGHT: Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann ignores the long odds against him and stays in the race until the primary, where he is soundly defeated by Scott Walker – as expected.

RIGHT: Neumann does not run as an independent and endorses Walker after the primary.

WRONG: Walker limps into the general election campaign where state Democrats unleash a negative TV ad assault that will make the Jim Doyle/Greater Wisconsin Committee smear campaign against Mark Green in 2006 look like ads for the Girl Scouts of America.  Walker out-hustles Democrat Tom Barrett on the ground but is simply unable to counter the $20 million TV raping, and Barrett wins the race for governor.

WRONG: Team Pelosi sustains a substantial, but manageable, loss of about 25 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Only 38 seats off.)

WRONGEST OF ALL: Roger Roth out-works the 75 other Republicans running in the primary to replace Congressman Steve Kagen and pulls out a surprisingly wide margin of victory.  Roth puts the race on the national radar but Democrats, consumed with other priority races, overlook it until the very end – when it is too late.  Roth, not the polarizing figure that John Gard was, pulls out a 53-47 win against Kagen.

BASICALLY WRONG: State Senator Dan Kapanke loses the interest of national Republicans as missteps and sloppiness doom him to a disappointing finish, and Ron Kind holds the 3rd district easily – but not quite reaching 60%.

WAY WRONG: Russ Feingold easily beats Terrence Wall for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate.

RIGHT/WRONG: Overall, the GOP will disappoint in its efforts to retake substantial ground in the U.S. Senate. Republicans will score some high-profile wins as against long-time incumbents (such as Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas) and some encouraging holds (Rob Portman in Ohio), but will only gain two or three seats overall – barely enough to sustain a filibuster. (GOP gains in the U.S. Senate should have been at or near 10.  Gaining six seats was nice, but a huge disappointment.)

Where was Republican Senator Luther Olsen on the night of Wednesday, December 15?

I have a theory.  It may sound starkly black-helicopterish, but I believe it is probably true.  It is my belief that Olsen probably supported the contracts and wanted to come and vote in favor of them.  Hearing this, Senator Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate Minority Leader, likely had to call Olsen and tell him to stay home so he could preserve caucus unanimity.  After all, if Olsen gets a pass, then others are sure to seek one, too.  It’s the State Senate after all.

It may be that Olsen was at a funeral, attending to a sick relative, on vacation or somewhere else with a perfectly good and legitimate excuse.  But my gut, which is usually right (except in my prediction that Roger Roth would be elected to Congress), tells me that he had to be talked out of coming to cast a “yes” vote by Republican leadership in the State Senate.

But Olsen’s silence is deafening.

Olsen could quickly put this issue to rest by issuing a statement declaring how he would have voted.  To this point he as not, and I don’t expect him to do so.

Luther Olsen’s constituents deserve to know where he stands on the state contracts, and I hope they are paying attention to his silence on the issue.

By the way… Does anyone else find it ironic that the most liberal Republican in the legislature has a picture of the 2009 TEA Party at the State Capitol on the front page of his state website (you might have to refresh a few times to see it)?  There may not be a Republican in Madison who less embodies the TEA Party – and is more opposed to their policy goals – than Luther Olsen.  And he knows it.

UPDATE: So, apparently Senator Olsen was in California on a family vacation on Wednesday.  Still, I believe that he should tell his constituents how he would have voted on the contracts.  They do deserve to know.

Frankly, after the primary, I just didn’t find much out there that I cared to write about.  Scott Walker’s campaign was lame but opportunistic.  Ron Johnson’s was excellent.  Sean Duffy was going to beat Julie Lassa and the GOP would win a double majority in the State Legislature.  The only real surprise, in my mind, was the extent of the overall beat-down.

But with the new legislative session coming January 3, I’ve been feeling like there are a few thing I need to get off of my chest.  I hope you will tune in.  Tell your friends to stop by, too.

2011 is going to be a wild, wild ride.

Rebecca Kleefisch – This was, perhaps, the most disappointing result of the night.  While I appreciate Kleefisch’s overt support for Christian values, I got the feeling that she was using them as a tool to get votes for her campaign for Lieutenant Governor.  I wasn’t comfortable with that.  Further, I was not impressed with her discussion of issues.  She campaigned as the most conservative Republican in the race, and I am shamed that GOP voters took that at face value, didn’t ask tough questions of her (like they did of Brett Davis), and nominated her overwhelmingly.  Kleefisch has strong potential to become a sideshow in the fall campaign and, at some point, the Walker campaign will have to spend precious news cycles addressing something she said – or a relationship she endangered.  I thought Davis or Dave Ross would have been just fine – and would have been qualified to run the state should Walker become incapacitated or leave office.  I do not have that confidence with Kleefisch, a news reader.

Let me repeat a portion of that:

Kleefisch has strong potential to become a sideshow in the fall campaign and, at some point, the Walker campaign will have to spend precious news cycles addressing something she said…

Wow.  And I’m not even that smart.  Are you happy now, Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes?

For the record, I do not disagree with Kleefisch’s point.  But how could she possibly think that a wise thing to say in the midst of a superheated gubernatorial campaign?  I mean, really?

- Scott Walker – There’s no way I want four more years of Jim Doyle, so I’m a Walker guy now.  I was disappointed that Mark Neumann lost, and I could feel a strong move in the final weekend that late breakers were going for Walker.  Had the election been a week earlier, things may have been different.  It just seemed like Neumann peaked a week early.

- Ron Johnson – Johnson, let it be known, is my new man-crush.  85 percent was a strong showing in the primary, even against a non-serious candidate like Dave Westlake.  I never took to Westlake; maybe it was his ad several months ago announcing phase three of his campaign, which was to stop raising campaign funds except off of “I AM DAVE WESTLAKE” t-shirt sales.  Anyhow, the U.S. Senate – and the GOP establishment – is in need of someone like Johnson with absolutely no political experience and a strictly private sector pedigree.

- Rebecca Kleefisch – This was, perhaps, the most disappointing result of the night.  While I appreciate Kleefisch’s overt support for Christian values, I got the feeling that she was using them as a tool to get votes for her campaign for Lieutenant Governor.  I wasn’t comfortable with that.  Further, I was not impressed with her discussion of issues.  She campaigned as the most conservative Republican in the race, and I am shamed that GOP voters took that at face value, didn’t ask tough questions of her (like they did of Brett Davis), and nominated her overwhelmingly.  Kleefisch has strong potential to become a sideshow in the fall campaign and, at some point, the Walker campaign will have to spend precious news cycles addressing something she said – or a relationship she endangered.  I thought Davis or Dave Ross would have been just fine – and would have been qualified to run the state should Walker become incapacitated or leave office.  I do not have that confidence with Kleefisch, a news reader.

- Reid Ribble – Terri McCormick didn’t win, and that is good.  Ribble has some potential, but the book has largely yet to be written on him.  The next few weeks will tell us a lot.

- Sean Duffy – After Johnson, Duffy is my next biggest man-crush.  His first ad was one of the best of the cycle thus far.  It is going to be hard for Democrats to catch a break in the 7th with a milquetoast candidate like Julie Lassa.  A lengthy post on this race is coming in the near future.

- Legislative Races – Looking statewide, there were no real surprises in state legislative primaries.  Perhaps the most interesting result was Frank Lasee’s big victory in the 1st Senate District.  Some time ago, I flatly stated that he would lose if nominated (I said the same about Dave Hutchison).  However, the way this cycle has unfolded, I no longer expect that to be the case.  Democrat Monk Elmer has been highly overrated and unimpressive thus far, and Lasee’s primary campaign was far more impressive than those he ran when he was in the Assembly.  He should hold the seat easily in November.

The next six weeks are going to be awesome.

We’ve faced what seemed like insurmountable challenges before; taking on the political machine when they said it couldn’t be done.

The irony slapped me like a cold fish.  Why?  Because the Walker campaign, along with Reince Priebus and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, are running an old-fashioned political machine.

I don’t believe Scott Walker himself concocted this condition.  For some reason, it just happened.  I suppose it was a combination of things starting with grassroots Republicans’ penchant for coalescing around a candidate because it’s his turn (Bob Dole 1996).  And when the candidate whose turn it is happens to be reasonably conservative (unlike Dole), base conservatives can get downright hostile toward those who do not see things their way.  For examples of this, simply troll the right side of the cheddarsphere on any given night – or listen to Mark Belling on any given day.

Ironically, these are generally the same people who were furious when Dole was coroneted in 1996.

One of the reasons I started this blog last year was because I wanted to point out some issues with the Walker campaign that I knew I could not do with my name attached.  Personally, I wish for a future in Wisconsin conservative politics but, if you live in Wisconsin’s Republican political sphere, you cannot afford to suggest anything but that Mark Neumann is out of line in challenging Scott Walker and must be stopped.

Ever wonder why no currently-elected Wisconsin political figure has endorsed Neumann?  Or why he had to another state to find a campaign staff?

Because you can forget about getting a job in the Walker Administration – or anywhere near the Wisconsin GOP – if you support Mark Neumann.

Well, Mark Neumann DOES have a right to run for governor – and I have a right to vote for him.  And it just so happens that Walker’s baggage from the Milwaukee County Health Complex has compromised his own electability and signified Neumann’s emergence as the biggest threat to Tom Barrett.

I’m voting against Reince Priebus and the Republican establishment – and FOR Mark Neumann.

They were beside themselves that Neumann “went negative” and went so far as to call on him to leave the race.  Closing ranks behind Gilkes were radio screamer Mark Belling and Walker’s adoring activist base.

Well, I wonder what they have to say about this?

That’s right – Walker is hitting Neumann with negative TV and mail in the last week before the primary.  Of all things, he’s hitting Mark Neumann on spending and tying him to… Nancy Pelosi.  Really?  I mean, really?

As someone who studies this stuff, I can tell you what this means.  Neumann is close – and Walker’s internals show it.  They’re scared.

Meanwhile, Neumann has been noticeably positive in the last weeks of the campaign.  THAT tells me his internals say the same as Walkers – or he has made a conscious decision to stay positive even if he loses.  I’m guessing the former.

I wonder if Mark Belling is now going to rip Scott Walker for going negative?  I’m guessing not.

Fact is, only one candidate has been putting forward real ideas for Wisconsin in this campaign, and only one candidate has a campaign staff that is not filled with crybabies like Keith Gilkes.  That’s Mark Neumann.

I’m voting for Mark Neumann for governor on September 14, and I hope you will, too.

But for Scott Walker, it’s all slipping away.

Yes, he may win the GOP primary on September 14.  Yes, Rasmussen will have him up early over Tom Barrett post-primary.  But a realistic assessment of Walker’s position reveals a highly vulnerable candidate with extremely serious problems that are jeopardizing his candidacy.

I only wish base conservatives would step up and admit it.

First, we in the blogosphere have had our fun nitpicking at Walker for the Scott4Gov.com fiasco, the death of that website’s Twitter feed, and the Walker insiders who were involved in the operation.  While Scott4Gov.com alone is not a real issue for Walker, Darlene Wink and Tim Russell are.  While Walker will continue to play dumb about the personal use of the computers in his executive office, the fact that his staffers keep getting pinched using them to campaign IS a major issue – and one that conservatives should be asking questions about.

Wink and Russell show that there is a serious disciplinary issue in the Walker’s executive office.  By disciplinary I mean to say that, obviously, no one sat these people down and said, “Listen – boss is running for governor.  As a result, there are certain ground rules by which we need to adhere.  NO campaigning in the office!”  This is Rule #1 for EVERY current public official seeking election – but Walker’s staff didn’t get the memo.

Walker is claiming that he is a strong and accountable leader.  Yet such leaders tend not to let their staff bend and break rules.  Sloppiness and rule-breaking like this ALWAYS tends to be a reflection of the leader’s style and attitude.

But even this may not end up as a big deal in the context of a huge campaign, but Walker will eventually have to defend himself over multiple news cycles – and TV ads.

What IS a major issue, however, is this result of an investigative report by two Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters:

Instead of keeping her safe, hospital administrators put the woman in the same unit as Omowale Atkins, a patient with a history of violence and sexual assault who once punched a nurse so hard he shattered the man’s eye socket.

Atkins had sex with the woman on the day she arrived and at least several times after that for the next three weeks, records from a federal inspection of the hospital show. Her guardian was never told about the sex, a violation of hospital policy.

When the medical staff discovered months later that she was pregnant, they further ignored hospital policy by waiting weeks before informing her guardian.

By the time her guardian was told of the pregnancy, the woman was believed to be in her second trimester, and it was too late to spare the fetus from the most dangerous effects of three psychiatric medications she had been taking.

…

Since then the newspaper’s investigation has determined that county health workers – from nursing assistants to administrators – mismanaged the case from the beginning, ignored medical orders and falsified documents to hide their mistakes.

The Journal Sentinel estimates their errors have cost federal, state and county taxpayers at least $700,000 in extra patient care costs and legal fees in the past year, a figure that may easily top $1 million.

The woman, who is not being named because she may be a victim of a sexual assault, likely would have stayed at the complex for only a few weeks until her condition could be stabilized, her guardians said. Instead, she had to be hospitalized throughout her pregnancy and for weeks beyond that at a cost of roughly $400,000.

For Atkins, who at times required greater supervision at a higher cost, the higher tally for care has been at least $300,000.

Add to that the expense of the woman’s prenatal care, the baby’s delivery, the costs of his foster care and adoption, costs to examine Atkins and other legal fees associated with his criminal cases, and the costs to correct the errors found in the federal and state inspections.

…

Federal inspection records show Atkins was allowed to leave the ward to buy cigarettes while nurses signed false reports claiming he had been checked every 15 minutes as his doctor had ordered. On July 26, 2009, Atkins was found outside the ward in the hallway of the complex’s nursing home, talking to three 8-year-old girls and blocking their path. Nurses failed to include the incident in the notes that Atkins’ doctors review to determine if he should be allowed to leave the secure ward.

Twice after that Atkins was allowed to leave the complex for overnight visits to a group home. Hospital staff did not tell the group home’s operators about Atkins’ full history of violent behavior, federal inspection records show. County officials won’t identify the group home or its location, and it was not identified in federal records.

Atkins was charged with sexually assaulting a woman on the ward less than a week after returning from his second visit to the group home. In the course of two months last summer, staff caught Atkins having sex with three patients.

Seriously – read the entire series, which can be found here.  On a human level, it is absolutely heartbreaking – and infuriating.  I would like to post all of the most outrageous parts here, but there simply isn’t room.

Bottom line is that this all happened at a facility overseen by Milwaukee County.  That’s Scott Walker’s jurisdiction.  He’s ultimately accountable and should be front and center accepting responsibility.

Friends, you don’t need to be James Carville or Karl Rove to understand the political implications of this for Walker.  I’m sure you’ve already envisioned the TV ads from the Barrett campaign, Greater Wisconsin Committee and the Democratic Party.

Barrett’s already got a website up attacking Walker on the issue.  I actually found myself nodding in agreement as I watched the Democratic Party hit ad on the front page.

Fellow conservatives, is this the type of governance we desire?

I submit that it is not.  Further, I no longer believe that Scott Walker is the surest bet among the two GOP candidates to beat Barrett.  He’s going to get torn to ribbons over this atrocity.  Scott Walker would lose to Tom Barrett.

For conservatives and Walker, the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex scandal should be a deal breaker.

For a movement that claims to demand accountability, we need to back that up at the ballot box.

The complaints are wide-ranging and ubiquitous, especially on the right.  ”The NRSC and NRCC are supporting a bunch of RINO liberals…”  ”They’re fighting to protect liberal or otherwise unacceptable GOP incumbents…”  The list goes on.

At the risk of sounding like an establishment apparatchik, I believe this criticism is entirely unwarranted.

The people leveling these criticisms – generally conservatives with an ideological profile similar to mine – need to understand exactly what these groups are.

First and foremost, they are designed and administered by incumbent politicians – to protect incumbent politicians. Their second priority – NOT their first – is to expand the size of their conference.

Incumbents are asked – if not required – to kick in a lot of campaign cash in order to fund these organizations.  Yes, these groups also bring in individual donations – but their bread-and-butter is the dues and other funds – including PAC – received and raised by individual conference members.

While it may well be “wrong” to support a lousy incumbent like Lisa Murkowski, Joe Miller and his supporters – and conservatives raising concerns over NRSC’s involvement in ballot counting in Alaska – need to understand that Murkowski is an investor in the NRSC.  How, then, is it wrong for NRSC to come in and provide certain services for their investor, Murkowski?

I would argue that it would be profoundly and morally wrong for NRSC to NOT aid Murkowski until it is known for absolute certain that she has lost.  After all, Murkowski is a part-owner of NRSC.  She is entitled to its help.

So that’s the conundrum.  Surely, many conservatives have given money to the NRSC thinking their dough would be spent to elect conservatives.  But that’s not what campaign committees are about, and a simple review of their finance reports reveals that.

Rather, conservatives should approach their campaign contributions like they do their home, automobile and stock purchases – by first doing their research and then acting accordingly.